I went with a Samsung 860 Evo 500 Gb mSata SSD and a Samsung 850 Pro SSD in the regular HDD slot in my W530.

Since I'm usually scurrying around trying to purchase "almost-or-soon-to-be-obsolete" parts, I latched onto six Samsung mSata SSD's of varying capacities for various x20 and x30 units.

Also presently upgrading various other older Thinkpads with the appropriate adapter.... currently shoehorning one into an x41T model. (First attempt with a Startech 2.5" mSata SSD adapter and Win XP Tablet Edition works very well, except that the form-factor leaves a portion of the drive extended from the case...next to try with a 1.8" adapter.)

I would like to go the mSATA route, but mSATA drives cost much more than normal SDDs and it seems are slower. If I needed to fully max out the storage I suppose mSATA would be necessary, but as it is I think I will go for the cheaper, perhaps faster, and less expensive route of a caddy and a normal SSD.

However, if in the next year or two there are more mSATAs around than there is demand for them, the prices will fall considerably. At that stage, I will probably bite.

However, if in the next year or two there are more mSATAs around than there is demand for them, the prices will fall considerably. At that stage, I will probably bite.

Nope! M.2 has already taken the market segment from mSATA...and no machines come with mSATA ports anymore except for maybe the WiFi card.

Thinkpad4by3's Law of the Universe.

The efficiency of two screens equally sized with equal numbers if pixels are equal. The time spent by a 4:3 user complaining about 16:9 is proportional to the inefficiency working with a 16:9 display, therefore the amount of useful work extracted is equal.

However, if in the next year or two there are more mSATAs around than there is demand for them, the prices will fall considerably. At that stage, I will probably bite.

Nope! M.2 has already taken the market segment from mSATA...and no machines come with mSATA ports anymore except for maybe the WiFi card.

I think you are confused. The fact that no new machines come with mSATA ports means that demand for mSATA drives will largely disappear. If suppliers are sitting on unsold stocks of mSATA devices, then demand will fall, and so will prices. It's basic economics.

Of course, there may not be large stocks of unsold mSATA drives, in which case prices won't fall.

Of course, there may not be large stocks of unsold mSATA drives, in which case prices won't fall.

mSATA wasn't ever really TOO popular so the chance of having large stocks in a warehouse is small. There are cheap chinese mSATA drives that you could use instead.

Thinkpad4by3's Law of the Universe.

The efficiency of two screens equally sized with equal numbers if pixels are equal. The time spent by a 4:3 user complaining about 16:9 is proportional to the inefficiency working with a 16:9 display, therefore the amount of useful work extracted is equal.

if it wasn't too popular then it is possible that manufacturers might have over-estimated demand, and produced too many!

But this is all idle speculation. Only time will tell.

There are only a handful of laptop models with mSATA slots, most of them released between 2011 and 2012 (maybe up to 2013). So there's not much impetus for manufacturing mSATA SSDs.

Then again, at least Samsung EVO mSATA SSDs are available. M.2 2242 SATA SSDs have it worse, as none of the big brands (Samsung, Crucial, Sandisk) make them; of the ones I've seen in Amazon, Transcend is the only brand I recognize.